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This colorful booklet lists all the ritual items needed for the Passover table. The history and significance of each item on the seder plate is explained, as are the customs that have been handed down through the generations in different centers of Jewish life.

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Tag Archives: Book of Lamentations

This week we begin the 5th of the Five Books of Moses: Devarim, which literally translates to “The Words” even though we usually hear “Deuteronomy” as the English (Greek! more on this later below) name. Some like to say, “These Are The Words,” because the entire book amounts to a very long exhortation by Moshe/Moses to the Children of Israel as they stand on the threshold of the Promised Land, the Land of Israel.

The first thing that is odd about Devarim is the very fact that Moshe, at the end of his long life, has become an orator. Remember back in Sh’mot/Exodus, chapter 4 verse 10, when he tells God “Please Lord, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now…I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” In other words, Moshe begs God not to make him the leader of the Israelites, since he feels himself to be handicapped when it comes to making speeches. How things have changed in the 40 years of wandering in the desert! What do you think… does Moshe still have his same speech defect, or did something essential about him change? What happened to enable him to speak the words that make up the book of Devarim?

In English, this book is called Deuteronomy, based on the Greek word “Deuteronomion,” meaning “second law.” This name is likely because the book repeats many of the laws already given in Exodus chapters 19-23.

However, 70 of the approximately 100 laws found in Devarim appear only here. In fact, it is sometimes enlightening to compare the version in Deuteronomy with the original version in Exodus…. For example, how are the Ten Commandments different in each book? It is commonly accepted among bible scholars that Devarim was written several centuries after the other 4 books comprising the Torah, likely in the 7th century BCE, during the reign of King Josiah, and that the discovery of “a scroll of the Teaching,” mentioned in Kings 2 chapter 22:8, is none other than the book we are now beginning to read in synagogues.

There are lots of ways this book differs from the previous four:

the Hebrew language is different;

it has a different tone;

the laws in it are presented as a form of covenant between God and the People;

and this covenantal language corresponds to the covenants of other peoples in that part of the world at that time.

Deuteronomy’s effect on Jewish life cannot be overstated. No idea has shaped Jewish history more than monotheism, which this book asserts so passionately. And no verse has shaped Jewish consciousness and identity more than Deuteronomy’s classic expression of that idea, the Sh’ma.

Our G-dcast narrator points out that a journey that might have taken just 11 days took 40 years! And as we begin reading, we notice that Moshe is recalling a bunch of places and people met along the way. The entire book of Devarim is divided into three discourses by Moshe, plus a few narratives, including the very last story, which we will get to in about 3 months — the story of Moshe’s death.

This week, we begin with the first discourse, in which our leader is intent on doing a major review…. It seems he really wants to ensure that they know what has happened during the 40 years of desert wandering, even if some of those to whom he is speaking didn’t experience the episodes first hand — maybe they were born in the desert and had no knowledge of what their parents went through.

So teacher Moshe is giving geography lessons, history lessons (which kings and which people we fought during those desert years), and a lot of “remember this, remember when?” What’s so important about having to remind the Israelites of every single one of these encounters with foreign nations? And how do you think this links up to Moshe telling the people Go, take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to assign to them and their heirs after them (chapter 1 verse 8)?

One last note: from sundown on Monday, July 15 ’til darkness on Tuesday, July 16, there is a holiday commemorating the Jewish national day of mourning, Tisha B’Av, the 9th of [the month of] Av. It is a solemn fast day, a day to remember many of the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, beginning with the destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash/the Temple in the year 586 BCE. In this week’s parasha, in chapter 1 verse 12, we have one little word that gives a hint that Tisha B’Av (during which the Book of Lamentations is read) is around the corner. That little word is “eicha,” which means “how.” Moshe asks, “How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering?” This echoes the first word in the Book of Lamentations, where the opening verse is, “How does the city sit so lonely, she that was once great among nations!” It is a plaintive cry, and, in fact, the parallel word in this week’s parasha is chanted with the same sad melody as the Book of Lamentations.

Lots to think about, lots to ponder, as we enter Shabbat, and then the sad day of mourning on the Ninth of Av.